One/two tip(s) for forum owners

[Nathan]

Hi guys,

Basically this is the thing that annoys me the most when I visit a forum, as soon as I see this my mouse always seems to magically click the "x" button on the tab (Firefox.)

Anyway what im talking about is your forum descriptions and forum names. I know there's probably a million topics on "how to make your forum descriptions stand out" or "the best forum description tips!" but frankly none of you seem to be reading those topics (or those topics are just plain crap written by some 5 year old moron.) There is nothing worse than seeing a forum description and forum name that incorporates the following:

Forum name: Intro (Cmon.. At least do "Introductions" don't forget not everyone who visits your forum will understand what "Intro" means I know it's highly unlikely that they don't but you have to accommodate for everyone.)
Description: "Hi,this is a introduction forum want to say hi to everyone then come here and do it!!!"
What makes these bad: Firstly the forum name as I mentioned in the brackets. Secondly the description has poor punctuation, and one thing I really hate is when people put "Come here and do it" or "Do it here" just make a description that people will know what the forum is about, adding things like the 2 examples I just made makes me wanna vomit all over your virtual website..

Forum name: announcments
Description: "form announcments will be posted here come read them here"
What makes these bad: Firstly there's no capital letter "Announcements" and "announcments" is spelt wrong, I mean I know everyone isn't a great speller but seriously use Google or a spell check site or something. Secondly a big mistake I see forum owners do is not spelling "forum" right, they always spell it as "form" (as I did purposely above) your running a forum, you should know how to spell what it is your running. Not only does it make you look like a half witted ding bat, but it hurts your SEO rankings.

Forum name: Suggestions
Description: "THINK OF SOMETHING TO SUGGEST TO MAKE DA FORUM FULLY HECTIC BRO, DEN COME HERE AND POST WHAT U THINK WILL MAK3 DA FORUM PR0, LETS MAKE DIS FORUM 1337"
What makes these bad: The forum name is great although it could be a little more creative so figure something out on your own, im not Harry Potter. I don't even think I have to explain the description but in case there are some people who think this is acceptable (which obviously there are otherwise I wouldn't have added this example :roll: never EVER type your description in full capitals, avoid the use of "l33t" type, avoid words which you think make you look cool (no one thinks your cool because you run a forum, I bet you're too embarrassed to even told your friends at school that you run a forum) and avoid the use of "lets" when you write your suggestions description, at the end of the day it is YOUR forum and you should be running it YOUR way with the minor exception of listening to what your users want to enhance their experience at your forum.

Forum name: Forum Promotion (These are mostly on promotion forums (who may I add literally JUST opened 10 minutes ago), and out of the like 2000 ads of them posted on here around 1999 do this)
Description: "Come post your forum link here this awesome free service will get your forum instantly active with a million members!!!!!"
What makes these bad: Firstly think of a more creative forum name, something like "Doodles R Us" no not really, but see how I got your attention cause it's creative. Secondly and most obvious is the description, firstly can I just :roll: you just opened your forum and yet you boast about how someone is going to get a million members by placing their topic on your dead forum which has like 5 genuine members which are all your staff um ok.. :shrug:

A perfect example of this is (couldn't post the image directly due to the stupid width restriction at FP so just click it to view):

http://i51.tinypic.com/dgq6xk.png

Forum name: da market
Description: Come Sell Your Items Here In Da Market, You Can Sell Anything You Want In Here But Remember You Can't Sell x & x & x & x & x
What makes these bad: Firstly add a capital letter to "da" infact just remove the "da" and add a capital to market. This is probably the worse thing I hate, every letter starts with a capital, WTF secondly when someone says "you can sell anything but remember you can't sell this and that and that and this and that" seriously just get to the point and don't mislead your members.

Forum name: Rules
Description: These are the rules come read them otherwise you will get banned!!!
What makes these bad: Well basically having a whole forum just for your stupid rules is well.. stupid. You don't need a whole section just have a announcement or a sticky or a new page or something you don't need a whole forum for one topic. Secondly you can't assume just because someone doesn't read your rules (which you most likely copied from another site anyway) that they will get banned from your site, mostly your rules will be common sense.

Hope you enjoyed the read and hopefully I won't see this crap anymore.

Cheers.

P.S: Flame all you want, but frankly it won't bother me one bit and I will give it back to you 🙂

 

[MrJohn]

Not sure why any one would flame this. Most of it is common knowledge, but useful none the less. It is a good read that all new forum owners should look through.

I also think being original should be on this list, stop with all of the promotion forums and hosts. :great:

 

[AnAccount]

I know the "or you will get banned" part is what always throws me off when I join a new forum and see that. I actually had help with my forums and descriptions because every time I came out with a forum, it was always the same old crap to the point where I'd even get bored with it. Also, some of the categories and descriptions are downright ridiculous at times. I sometimes see this on advertisement forums and it's a huge turn-off, because running a promotion forum is a sort of a business, so doing crap like that, well, that doesn't really look very professional at all in my eyes.

 

[Nathan]

Not sure why any one would flame this. Most of it is common knowledge, but useful none the less. It is a good read that all new forum owners should look through.

I also think being original should be on this list, stop with all of the promotion forums and hosts. :great:

You would have no idea what my PMs from previous topics ive had look like :lol:

Yeah the whole "being original" thing falls under the "creative category" I only did a brief section on that because I mainly wanted to cover forum names & descriptions and whilst this may be common sense it seems that no one follows it :shrug:

I know the "or you will get banned" part is what always throws me off when I join a new forum and see that. I actually had help with my forums and descriptions because every time I came out with a forum, it was always the same old crap to the point where I'd even get bored with it. Also, some of the categories and descriptions are downright ridiculous at times. I sometimes see this on advertisement forums and it's a huge turn-off, because running a promotion forum is a sort of a business, so doing crap like that, well, that doesn't really look very professional at all in my eyes.

Exactly. If you remember my old forum, I had taken at least 10 minutes writing, checking and making adjustments to my descriptions to make them creative, non formal and not include a bunch of crap that makes a guest click the "x" button, and towards the end before the moron *cough* Anthony *cough* the forum was quite active considering it had a few decent forums in the niche.

 

[Branden]

Nathan,

I love this topic.

Regards,
BreeZy

 

[Nathan]

Cheers 🙂

 

[Branden]

😀 I just love how you are so honest about things.

 

[JedoChristo]

I totally agree with you on the stuff you mentioned.

 

[Gizmo]

Fantastic written tips Nathan. Quite helpful to the average forumer.

 

[Nathan]

Cheers guys, as I said previously I hope people actually do listen to them. If I see that they do I will make a lot more guides. I have heaps on my PC that ive written and have only been seen by me which ill release too, so that might be an incentive to follow this 🙂

 

[Kaiser.]

ROFL, this is hilarious "THINK OF SOMETHING TO SUGGEST TO MAKE DA FORUM FULLY HECTIC BRO, DEN COME HERE AND POST WHAT U THINK WILL MAK3 DA FORUM PR0, LETS MAKE DIS FORUM 1337"

 

[Nathan]

ROFL, this is hilarious "THINK OF SOMETHING TO SUGGEST TO MAKE DA FORUM FULLY HECTIC BRO, DEN COME HERE AND POST WHAT U THINK WILL MAK3 DA FORUM PR0, LETS MAKE DIS FORUM 1337"

It's even more hilarious when you actually see that someone decided to put something similar to what I posted in their forum's description :lol:

 

[Aki-P]

I'd like to add, "or you will be banned!", shouldn't be included in the rules.

If your rules are really dumbfounded to begin with, after I read it, and knowing you're power crazy to ban me for the slightest slip up, I'm just going to leave.

I think that part alone may read off as power abusive. Most forums have warning/infraction systems in addition to verbal warning.

 

[Trombones13]

Good information from you as well as several of the replies in this thread. I feel that as a forum owner, you should take the time (what little amount that that is, at least...it really isn't a big endeavor) to ensure your forum uses proper spelling and grammar, and as you've shown from your reactions in this thread, it can be as (if not, more so) important as the actual content of the site. If your forum's descriptions, rules, etc. are filled with grammatical errors and the other examples presented in this thread, it makes your site look unprofessional, and as a forum user, I'll close the tab and head to a competitor's site instead. 🙂

 

[Nathan]

I'd like to add, "or you will be banned!", shouldn't be included in the rules.

If your rules are really dumbfounded to begin with, after I read it, and knowing you're power crazy to ban me for the slightest slip up, I'm just going to leave.

I think that part alone may read off as power abusive. Most forums have warning/infraction systems in addition to verbal warning.

Very true. Im actually different to you, if I do ever see this and I can see that the Admin is a total meathead, ill go and troll the crap out of his forum to see how long it takes for me too get banned :lol:

Good information from you as well as several of the replies in this thread. I feel that as a forum owner, you should take the time (what little amount that that is, at least...it really isn't a big endeavor) to ensure your forum uses proper spelling and grammar, and as you've shown from your reactions in this thread, it can be as (if not, more so) important as the actual content of the site. If your forum's descriptions, rules, etc. are filled with grammatical errors and the other examples presented in this thread, it makes your site look unprofessional, and as a forum user, I'll close the tab and head to a competitor's site instead. 🙂

Cheers and that was almost my whole point so good job :great:

 

[AnAccount]

I'd like to add, "or you will be banned!", shouldn't be included in the rules.

If your rules are really dumbfounded to begin with, after I read it, and knowing you're power crazy to ban me for the slightest slip up, I'm just going to leave.

I think that part alone may read off as power abusive. Most forums have warning/infraction systems in addition to verbal warning.

I agree 100%. Rule breakers should be taken on a case by case basis. It doesn't mean you should treat everyone the same way regardless of what rule they've broken. For example, just because a person advertises their site through PM doesn't mean you should give them a flat-out permanent ban. Start off small by taking away their privleges to send PMs for a certain amount of time and work your way up from there.

 

[Slix]

Good tips! I'm tired of seeing forums with misspelled words and grammatical errors.

 

[♪Sauke♪]

Haha, these were more entertaining to read than I had expected. Thank you.

The only thing I really don't understand is the whole capital letters deal. Personally, I do it because I think it looks nice. An example:

Anime and manga discussion.
vs.
Anime And Manga Discussion.

In all, I guess it's just a matter of preference, but definitely not something I would leave a forum because of it.

 

[Nebulous]

As long as the name of each forum is simple enough, chances are I wont even read the description.

I have been on forums that have "creative" names for each forum and I am spending most of my time on the forum reading descriptions (which are also "creatively" worded) just to figure out what the hell kind of forum I am posting in. The reason I put the word "creative" in quotes is because it should really be "confusing." The forum owner probably thinks he/she is being unique and different than the rest but all he/she is doing is making the forum a headache to navigate.

 

[AnAccount]

As long as the name of each forum is simple enough, chances are I wont even read the description.

I have been on forums that have "creative" names for each forum and I am spending most of my time on the forum reading descriptions (which are also "creatively" worded) just to figure out what the hell kind of forum I am posting in. The reason I put the word "creative" in quotes is because it should really be "confusing." The forum owner probably thinks he/she is being unique and different than the rest but all he/she is doing is making the forum a headache to navigate.

I've been on a few forums with strange section names in my time, and I agree it is annoying. Sometimes I don't even bother to register because the sections are so confusing, therefore, one doesn't know what is allowed to be posted or what is forbidden.